The Coalition Fleet
by Touhoufanatic
Summary: Completing his time at the Naval academy, Yin Akimoto sails to his new post to combat the Abyssal ships, but the meeting of a Little one will complicate matters, and soon he and his ship girls find, not everything will be as it seems, and nothing is ever set in stone. A story of adventure and cooperation among those who would otherwise be foes.
1. The little Tag along

**Authors forward: I had this Idea in my head before the idea that became my one-shot the greatest loss, but I felt it better to test my skill for writing kantai collection with the one-shot first. The one-shot was far darker and sad and inversely this fic will be far more upbeat and happy, though it may have bits of sadness.**

**Now on with the fun!**

Yin cut the power to his speedboat and pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket, quickly looking over his orders.

To the newly appointed Admiral of the Southern Pacific Recon and Assistance Base on Kala island, Admiral Yin Akimoto.

Your orders are to take command of the Southern Pacific Recon and Assistance base on the island of Kala. Your job as Admiral of this base will be as follows:

Build up forces to combat Abyssal ship forces in the area and keep your base operational.

Respond to requests for assistance made by any admiral in the area.

With these goals in mind you are free to lead your ship girls how you please. Know that the island of Kala is equipped with a small device that will generate small quantities of resources for your use, and that there are currently two Ship girls stationed on Kala ready for orders.

Good luck, and make us proud!

Yin sighed as he placed the letter back into his uniform pocket and brushed a lock of white hair away from his red eyes. He had wanted to be on the front lines where his actions would be heard of back home, and instead he was being sent to an out of the way island to act as a Recon and assistance force, meaning neither he nor his ship girls would be getting much recognition, if any.

With yet another deep and heavy sigh, Yin stood up and stretched his arms above his head and looked out to the horizon. In the distance he could see the small outline of Kala, but it was just barely noticeable. With a quick glance to the sky he could see how high the sun was, reminding him just how long he had been on his speedboat.

"This is ridiculous," Yin muttered to himself angrily. "I left before dawn, just how bloody far out is this island?"

"**WO!" **came a cheery voice from behind him.

"I wonder if I pissed off one of the teachers at the Academy or something."

"**WO?" **the cheery voice said again, only sounding slightly confused.

"Or maybe I-," Yin stopped speaking midsentence as his brain finally registered the sound from behind him. Moving very slowly he shifted his weight and moved his arm to his belt where his father's old Sword sat in its sheath.

"**WO!"**

Yin spun around as he simultaneously drew his father's old blade and pointed it toward the source of the noise, an Abyssal Wo-class aircraft carrier. Yin had to blink multiple times to make sure he wasn't seeing things as he looked at it, but surely what he saw was not an illusion. Sitting before him on the deck of his boat was a Wo-class aircraft carrier, complete with its headgear equipment, its eyes glowing faintly blue as its four tentacles wiggled ever so slightly. The only thing that made this Wo-class different than the ones he had been taught to expect at the Academy was size, this one was barely a foot tall, and almost looked like a baby.

Yin stood his ground and continued to point his father's blade at the Wo-class, nervous about its being there, but utterly intrigued by its size none the less.

The little Wo-class sat there looking at him, tilting its head a few times before raising its arms into the air happily. **"WO!"**

Yin turned and glanced at the sonar his speed boat was equipped with. It showed nothing for almost twenty kilometers, and it hadn't gone off previously. "State your business creature!" Yin ordered as he turned his gaze to the little Wo-class once more.

The Wo-class tilted its head and then happily threw its small arm into the air once more. **"WO!"**

"I said state your business!" Yin roared causing the Wo to look at him In confusion, as if it did not understand what he was asking.

"**wo?"**

Yin slowed his breathing and flipped his father's blade around so that he held it backwards behind him as he took a few steps closer and knelt down a few feet away from the little Wo-class. "You don't understand a thing I'm saying, do you?

The little Wo-class looked at him silently as it tilted its head slowly from side to side, causing its tentacle to sway to either side.

"I heard than many Abyssal ships could speak our language to an extent, but not only do you not seem to be able to, but you're too small. What are you?"

The little Wo-class looked at him for many moments before rocking itself back and forth like a child and it spoke. **"wo, wo, wo!"**

Yin grumbled to himself over the lack of direction his questions were taking and slowly sheathed his father's blade. "It's almost like you're a child, but I've never heard of Ship Girls having children, especially Abyssal ships. I wonder-,"

"**WO!"** The little Wo suddenly cried out as it got up on its feet and began running toward Yin.

Yin leapt back and drew his blade as fast as he could and swung down to cleave the little creature, but stopped as the Wo-class grabbed his left ankle. He had been prepared for it to fire at him, to summon up little planes to attack him, or even for it to bite him, but instead the little Wo was rubbing its cheek against his pant leg while letting out a long, obviously happy sound almost like a purr.

"**wooooo wooooo wooooooooo" **The little Wo-class cooed as it continued to hold onto Yin's leg as it rubbed his pants with its cheek, moistening his pant leg with seawater that was somehow still dripping from it.

Yin stood there in shock as he looked down at the almost Chibi sized Wo latching onto his leg and nuzzling it. Not a single thing he ever been taught or had heard about Abyssal ships had prepared him for this, and he wasn't sure anyone would believe him anyway. Shaking his leg a bit he found that the Wo-class had wrapped its tentacles around his leg as well, making him extremely uncomfortable. "Um, could you let go now?"

The little Wo-class looked up at him, giving him a severe shock. It was smiling. Not a devious or evil smile, but a happy smile. A smile so happy it reminded him of the little kids in the village he grew up in, a smile so happy could hold no ill will, no matter who wore it. **"wo, wo, wo . . . . . .wo?"**

Yin scowled to himself as the Wo-class happily hugged his leg, its grip considerable when assisted by four limbs of pure muscle. Unsure what to do, he brushed his hair away from his eyes once more and glanced at the watch on his left arm. Noticing the time, he was suddenly worried over how late he was for getting to his new base. "Hey um, Abyssal ship?" Yin asked hoping to get the Wo-class's attention.

The Wo class paid no attention as continued to nuzzle his leg like a small puppy.

"Um, Wo-class?"

The little Wo-class turned its gaze up and met Yins **"wo?"**

"I need to get going somewhere, so could you let go of my leg? Please?"

The little Wo-class let go of Yins leg, moved back three tiny steps and then sat down before him, smiling happily.

"I- I guess you do understand me then. Either way I suggest you go back to where you came from!" Yin said as he turned around and slid into the pilot seat. With a quick twist of the key, the engine roared to life and the boat took off, salt spray flying up around it.

"**WO!"**

Yin looked to his side to see the little Wo-class sitting on the passenger seat beside him, its arms in the air as the salt spray flicked onto it. "I thought I told you to go back to where you came from?!" Yin yelled as he continued to push the speedboat forward toward Kala.

The little Wo-class shook its head angrily and crossed it arms as it sat there pouting. **"WO!"**

"You have to leave, you can't come with me!"

"**WO!"**

"You'll be killed!"

Hearing this, the little Wo-class turned it gaze to Yin and just looked, both its little eyes and the pale glowing one on its gear almost tearing up.

Yin tried to avert his gaze but could not as visible tears began sliding out of the little Wo-class's eyes. "Fine." Yin grumbled.

"**Wo, wo, wo, wo, wo wo!" **The little Wo-class began chanting rhythmically as it jumped up and down on the passenger seat as the boat slowed down; nearing the dock of the naval base that Yin was to take command of.

Yin looked at the base and could see two silhouettes of people running toward the dock, likely the ship girls who would be under his command, and let out a deep sigh. "What the hell am I getting into?"


	2. Blades under the sun

Tenryuu stared out at the sparkling ocean, the late afternoon sun's rays sparkling off of its surface like a giant fluid mirror.

"This is ridiculous, where is he?"

"Where is who?

Tenryuu looked over to see Shimakaze standing beside her, hands behind her back as she bent forward to look at Tenryuu. "Our new Admiral of course, who'd you think?"

"Oh yeah, should we go out and look for him then? I could find in a blink of an eye!"

"You know we can't leave the base without orders from our admiral!"

"Our admiral who isn't here! We don't even know if it's a man or woman?" Shimakaze exclaimed as she sat down on the edge of the dock, tapping her heels against the stone. "So we just keep waiting then?"

"Yes we do! . . . . . Is that a speedboat?"

Shimakaze looked up to where Tenryuu was pointing to see a black object in the distance speeding towards them, growing larger and more obvious in its shape by the second. "Yes, yes I think it is. . . I could go faster though.

"Sure you could. Looks like he's going for the far dock to our right."

"Why would he go to the one furthest from us?"

"No idea, but let's go meet him."

"Right, I'll be first!" Shimakaze said as she got up and ran off to the dock with Tenryuu right behind her.

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Admiral Yin slid his boat to the edge of the dock and cut the power, letting the small waves beat against it lightly as he looked to his side. Beside him with a great smile on its face sat the little Wo-class that had crawled into his boat less than an hour before. Regardless of what he tried to say to it to get it to leave the little Wo-class refused to.

"Okay you followed me here. Now go back to where you came from."

The little Wo-class looked at him, its only reply being a tilt of its head.

"Good." Yin exclaimed as he climbed out of his boat and was met with a sight he been hoping for, finally meeting the first of his fleet. With a quick motion Yin stood at attention and saluted the two girls that stood before him. "My name is Yin Akimoto. I have been given command of this naval base as its Admiral. I look forward to working with you both."

"Heh, good to meet ya. Name's Tenryuu!" Tenryuu said as she mirrored Yins salute, and quickly noticed him staring at her sword on her waist. "Scared yet?"

Yin let out a light chuckle, "Sorry, I'm not that easy to scare," Yin said casually as he looked to Shimakaze, who took his gaze as a chance.

"I'm Shimakaze, fastest destroyer around. Why were you so late?"

Tenryuu wacked the back of Shimakaze's head, "You can't ask that!"

"It's no problem," Yin said as he stopped standing at attention. "It just took longer than I expected it to get here. How long were you waiting?"

"About an hour, why didn't you drive faster?" Shimakaze asked quickly.

"I had business to deal with. The two of you have been here at the base for a while, yes? Would you do me the honour of showing me around?"

Both Shimakaze and Tenryuu's faces lit up with brilliant smiles. "Sure! Follow us then!"

"Then I shall," Yin replied as the three of them walked toward the myriad of buildings away from the dock.

After a quick walk they arrived in a large building full of massive machinery with weapon racks along every wall, holding everything from torpedoes to AA rounds and everything in between. Tenryuu stepped forward and pointed to the various machines and racks as she spoke. "This is the factory and armory, all of our equipment is kept here, and this is where more of us are built when you have the resources."

"I see." Yin said as he looked at the massive stockpiles of ammunition. "Quite a bit of ammo."

"Yes, I'm glad you noticed. When Shimakaze and I arrived a few days ago we noticed that as well. Our ammo and fuel reserves are phenomenal, but our steel and bauxite are not so great."

Yin looked around, his face filling with bits of confusion as he did. "I can see the ammo and fuel, but where are the steel and bauxite kept then?"

"In the back rooms," Tenryuu said pointing to a large set of double sliding door in the middle of the back wall.

"I see. How much do we have?"

"I'm not sure about exact number, but enough to repair and rearm a number of times."

Yin looked at Tenryuu and Shimakaze then sighed to himself, looks like he would have to ask the question already, as much as it made him uncomfortable. "I hate to say this, but we'll need more people if we are to successfully support anyone that requests help, do we have enough for a battleship?"

"You have enough to build a cruiser, destroyer or submersible, but not enough for an aircraft carrier or a battleship!"

Yin looked around for the source of the new voice. "Who said that?"

Both Shimakaze and Tenryuu pointed up to Yins side, and as he looked he was almost shocked to see a little person, barely half a foot tall, floating beside him in full naval garb holding a tablet larger than she. "A fairy?" Yin asked quietly.

"A maintenance fairy." Shimakaze said quickly. "They maintain the bases machinery and facilities and help us repair when were in dock."

"Ah, I see." Yin replied as he looked at the fairy who bobbed up and down beside him. "Can I do something for you?"

"Yes sir, you are the bases new admiral, correct?" the maintenance fairy asked happily.

"I am."

"Then I need you to take this!" The fairy said as she waved the tablet about.

Yin took the tablet from her and was met with the image of a handprint upon it. "What is it?"

"It's your tablet. Through it you'll be able to check upon the bases status, and those of your ship girls, but you'll need to register yourself in it first, just place your hand on it!"

Yin did so and was quickly met with exact information on how much equipment they had, not enough for an aircraft carrier or battleship, but enough for anything else. "This will prove quite useful then, thank you."

"No problem sir!" The fair said as it flew toward the door, turning for one last comment before leaving. "Oh, and before you ask new ship girls that are made will automatically add to the bases systems, and the three ship girls here are already registered in it!"

Yin nodded and began looking through the information on the tablet, not noticing the looks of anger on Tenryuu and Shimakaze's faces. Shimakaze stepped forward until she was a mere foot from Yin and glared up at him. "What did she mean by three? Did you bring another ship girl and not tell us!"

Yin looked up at them both, only then realizing how pissed the two of them were. "Uh, no."

"Then why did the fairy say there were three of us in the bases systems?!"

"I don't know, I just-," Yin began as he sifted through the information on the tablet and stopped when it said there was an aircraft carrier in the system that was level zero. " . . . . What level are the two of you?"

Shimakaze backed up in shock at the question as Tenryuu answered." We're both level one, of course. We haven't had any combat so how could we be higher?"

"Then neither of you were level zero?"

"How the hell could that work, wouldn't that mean not having been built?" Shimakaze said angrily.

"Well it's just that-,"

"**WO!"**

Shimakaze and Tenryuu both tensed up as they heard the sound that had become all too familiar to Yin. Turning around all three of them saw, in the doorway to the factory, the little Wo-class looking at them with its big eyes. "It's a Wo-class, do we kill it?" Shimakaze whispered to yin with anticipation.

"Well, um I-,"

"**Wo!"** the little Wo-class called out as it ran over to the three of them and promptly latched onto Yins leg, cuddling it happily.

Shimakaze looked down at the Wo-class in shock before turning an enraged glare to yin. "You're an Admiral for them!?"

"No I am not! On my way here I stopped to take a quick break and it crawled into my boat. It completely ignored my threats and did this!" Yin explained as calmly as he could, given the situation.

"And now it followed you! What if it has friends!" Shimakaze roared!

"When it crawled on board my boat I checked the sonar, it didn't have anything on it for leagues." Yin explained.

"so that makes it better? That's an abyssal ship, our enemy!"

"I know that but-"

"But what? They try to kill all of us, we can't let them just waltz into the base!"

"Yes I know that, but this one seems to be innocent, it doesn't have a shred of anger and-."

"Innocent? They kill us, and we kill them, if we don't kill it who knows what it will do, Right Tenryuu! Tenryuu?" Shimakaze questioned as she looked to Tenryuu, an act that Yin did as well when Tenryuu did not answer.

Tenryuu stood still, not having moved even when the Wo-class came into the room, and stared at the little Wo-class for many moments, completely oblivious to Shimakaze trying to get her attention. Without warning she suddenly leapt forward and grabbed the little Wo-class from Yins leg and threw it into the air before catching it in a big hug that the little Wo-class attempted to awkwardly return. "It's soooooo cute!" Tenryuu yelled as she continued to hug the little Wo-class as it almost purred in her arms.

Shimakaze stood in shock at Tenryuu's action and looked to Yin who only shrugged. " Tenryuu, it's an abyssal ship. We need to kill it!"

Tenryuu looked from the little Wo-class to Shimakaze. "Buts she's so cute! And just look at her, she's so small she couldn't possibly be dangerous. Is she the third registered ship?" Tenryuu asked, turning her attention to Yin for a moment.

Yin flipped through the tablet until he nodded. "A level zero Wo-class aircraft carrier. How the heck did she pop into the system? I thought she left back into the sea when I docked."

"Well obviously she didn't!" screamed Shimakaze. "We need to kill her before she tries to kill us!"

"But she's so cute, can't we keep her?" Tenryuu asked Yin as the Wo-class let out a happy squeal from Tenryuu's hug.

"Keep it, we can't keep it! Shimakaze argued before both Shimakaze and Tenryuu looked to Yin.

Great I've got a serious decision already and I've yet to even see my office! Yin thought as he let out a sigh. "I'm on the fence here honestly. It is an abyssal ship and therefore our enemy, but on the other hand I know that it seems harmless, if over abundantly affectionate." Yin said as the Wo class nuzzled against Tenryuu's chest.

"If anyone finds out about it you'll be court-martialled for sure." Shimakaze said with a growl.

"Then nobody will find her!" Tenryuu countered as they both looked to Yin once more.

Yin let out yet another sigh. "I'm not entirely sure about what to do in this situation, and until I am we will keep it around, under constant surveillance!"

Both the girls looked at him as if requesting an explanation.

"We won't kill it!" upon saying this Shimakaze suddenly looked downtrodden. "But someone must watch it at all times in case it does try something."

"So, we're keeping her then?" Tenryuu asked

Yin nodded.

"Sweet! Thanks ,Admiral!" Tenryuu said as she hugged the little Wo-class again before holding her away from her. "Did you hear that, you get to stay with us!"

"**Wo!"** the little Wo-class said happily in reply.

"Ugh, I can't stand this, I'll be at the range!" Shimakaze called as she began walking for the door.

"Range?" Yin asked.

"Yeah, the shooting range, want to check it out?" Tenryuu replied as the little Wo-class climbed out of her arms and onto her shoulder.

"Won't we get in Shimakaze's way?"

"No, the range is pretty large. " Tenryuu said as she eyes the blade on Yins belt.

Yin smiled as he noticed Tenryuu doing this. "What, worried about my blade? Or about if I'm better than you?"

Tenryuu smiled, her competitive nature flowing out with significant force. "Maybe I want to make sure you can handle yourself!"

Yin grinned. "Alright, I can see the rest of the base later, too the firing range!"

"**Wooo!"** Wo said as she pointed at the door from Tenryuu's shoulder, acting as a little compass as they left the factory behind Shimakaze, who by now was likely already at the firing range.

Yin had thought he had understood what a firing range was. His main problem however, was that he forgot it was a firing range for ship girls and, as such, that it would be a very large outdoor pool. At the far end Yin could see Shimakaze and her three sentient turrets (that Tenryuu quickly explained were all called Rensouhou-chan) doing what looked to be maneuvering drills. Standing at the pools edge Yin could see Tenryuu telling Wo (when did he start not adding class to her name) to stay by the pools edge, an action that Wo happily ignored by jumping into the pool and swimming around the shallow end happily.

Tenryuu stood across from Yin at the pool's edge and drew her katana, its black blade shining in the bright now mid-afternoon light. "Going to draw your blade or are you surrendering already, Admiral?"

Yin smiled and drew his father's blade out of his sheath, surprising Tenryuu with its odd, almost jade green edge that showed far better now than when he had drawn it earlier in the day. "We'll see who surrenders yet."

Tenryuu smiled, not noticing Shimakaze skate across the water to their end, and put both hands on her blade. "Then before we begin, may I ask why your blade's edge is green? It's not made of copper is it?"

Yin shook his head. "This blade was my fathers, but first his fathers. We do not know what the blade is made of, but it is strong and light. Let's roll!"

With two steps each Tenryuu and Yin leapt toward the other. Tenryuu made the first move, swinging her blade down in a vertical strike. Yin dodged to the side and, with the blade in only one hand, swung it upwards, catching the pommel of Tenryuu's blade on the tip of his, causing Tenryuu's footing to falter. With a quick horizontal follow-up, Yin struck at Tenryuu, only to have Tenryuu use her momentum to roll forward and reposition herself. With a moment of silence between them Tenryuu and Yin leapt at each other, parrying and countering the other again, and again, and again, and again. By the time they both were panting heavily the ocean sun hung just above the water, preparing to go beneath the horizon.

"I have to say, Admiral." Tenryuu panted heavily, her blade digging into the ground giving her extra support. "I did not expect a human to be so skilled with a blade, especially against myself!"

Yin nodded as he let out a similar chain of heavy pants. " You as well Tenryuu, I can see that trusting you to use that blade in combat will not be a concern at all and that any spars we might have will be quite the workout."

"Why don't you two give it a rest before you kill yourselves?" Shimakaze commented as she sat on top of the water of the pools shallow end, Wo happily swimming small circles around her much to her disgust.

Yin and Tenryuu both nodded and sheathed their blades as Yin sat down and caught his breath, "That took far longer than I anticipated, suns almost down."

"Heh, sorry," Tenryuu said with slight embarrassment. "Once I get going it's hard to stop. I'm just surprised you kept blocking my blows as you kept up with me. You probably need a rest, huh?"

"I feel like I could sleep on the poolside." Yin admitted with a chuckle.

"Then do so, I'm going to my room. I'll see you both in the morning!" Shimakaze suddenly commented as she ran out of the firing range and toward the largest building in the base."

"Room?" Yin questioned.

"Yeah, everyone has their own room, including you, though yours is connected to your office, I think." Tenryuu said as she fished Wo out of the water and placed her on the pools edge with a smile."

"Ah I see. Sleep may be an idea then." Yin stated as he stood up and walked alongside Tenryuu out of the "firing range" and toward the large building.

"Yep, I'll watch Wo. Do you need to be shown your room and office?"

"I should be able to find it, though I should get my stuff from the boat."

"I'm pretty sure the maintenance fairies already have. I'll see you tomorrow, Admiral." Tenryuu said as she and Wo waked down a separate hallway.

"Yep, good night, see you tomorrow!"


	3. Midday Swim

Admiral Yin stepped back and nodded as he looked at his small and obscenely boring office. The night before he had been so tired from his spar with Tenryuu that he completely ignored what the office looked like when he entered it and fell onto the bed in the adjoining room, but now merely a minute after unpacking all of his personal affects he realised how large his office really was. All of the walls were bright white with black edging and his desk sat directly in the center of it all, two framed pictures of his family and hometown being the only things sitting on his desk. In a back corner of the room sat a small stand with a printer atop it that was connected to the tablet, and therefore connected to the bases systems. It made him wonder why he couldn't just have a normal computer, though he did understand the usefulness of a tablet. With a quick approving sigh Yin turned and left his office, closing the door behind him as he set off into the hallways in an attempt to find the mess hall, an attempt that quickly bore fruit.

Within a minute, Yin stood before a set of heavy plastic double doors with the words 'mess hall' above them in golden letters. Stepping through he was met with a sight that made him both happy and sad. The mess hall was huge and would easily be capable of holding a hundred people, and in it sat only Shimakaze and Tenryuu, Wo being chased around the outside of the mess hall by two of the three rensouhou-chans. Yin walked around the outside edge of the room, careful to dodge Wo and the rensouhou's as he did, and came to the table that Shimakaze and Tenryuu were eating at. As he did the two of them looked up and smiled to him.

"Morning, Admiral. I'll grab your food." Shimakaze said as she got up and rushed over to the kitchen.

Tenryuu let Yin take a seat across from her before swallowing and putting down her chopsticks. "Good morning, Admiral, sleep alright?"

Yin slid his seat forward and nodded. "Mostly. Sleeping in an unfamiliar place always takes some getting used to, but I'm sure I'll get a perfect sleep within a few days."

"Maybe you were having dreams of being eaten by an abyssal ship!" Shimakaze growled as she came back from the kitchen and slid a tray of food across the table to Yin before sitting down and continuing to eat her food.

Yin smiled, ignoring Shimakaze's obvious dislike for woman broke his chopsticks apart, digging into the food. "Mmmm, this is good; did one of you two make this?"

"Fufu, now you see that my skills aren't just for destroying the enemy!" Tenryuu declared as she crossed her arms happily before uncrossing them and digging back into her food.

As Yin finished his food and said thanks for the meal, seconds behind Tenryuu, he looked around and spotted Wo, running around the mess hall and now playing with all three Rensouhou-chans. "Shouldn't we give Wo something to eat?"

"I already did!" Tenryuu replied as she cracked her neck and slid her empty food tray aside. "She was nibbling on bauxite while I was cooking the food." Tenryuu commented with a smile.

"Ah, I see. At least the bauxite will get some use then." Yin replied as he picked up his glass of tea and took a deep sip. He noticed Shimakaze glaring at the table as if averting her gaze. "You really don't like Wo do you, Shimakaze?"

Shimakaze crossed her arms and looked away from Yin and toward the windows along the wall of the mess hall. "Why should I? It's an abyssal ship, our enemy!"

"How can you say that when she's so cute, just look at her!" Tenryuu said as she pointed to Wo who was carrying all three renshouhou's, on her head, until she tripped and all of them landed on their faces with dull thuds.

Shimakaze almost snickered but stopped herself and looked away. "Yes, so cute. I hope my rensouhou-chans are fine."

Yin let out a sigh and slid the base tablet out of the bag on his belt and placed it on the table. With a few quick swipes of his fingers across its surface he opened up a picture of the island, and a small nearby chain of islands, and slid the tablet across to Tenryuu and Shimakaze. "Ignoring your dislike for Wo, I'd like the two of you to go on an expedition in this island chain."

Both Shimakaze and Tenryuu looked at the map on the tablet for many moments before Shimakaze lifted her gaze toward Yin. "Any particular resource we're looking for? We already have a lot in the base storage after all."

"Yes but we don't have enough. I'd like to have a battleship built in case we;re called to assist another admiral, and if possible we could get a few others built as well, some more destroyers or cruisers perhaps."

Upon hearing this Shimakaze lit up like a light bulb. "so were to find all the material we can get then? All right, when do we leave?" Shimakaze said as she stood up from her seat.

"Hold on there, Shimakaze!" Tenryuu said quickly as she grabbed Shimakaze's shoulder and forcibly sat her back down before turning to Yin. "Why is it so imperative to get a battleship or more destroyers? Shouldn't we get ourselves leveled up a bit first?"

Yin was quiet for many moments before looking at Tenryuu and Shimakaze with a very solid glaze. "I understand wanting to get into the fight, but for now we will just gather our forces and increase them. You two can leave whenever you are ready, but be back before dusk whether you find anything or not."

Both Shimakaze and Tenryuu looked at each other before placing their food trays in the kitchen and leaving the mess hall with a quick wishing of luck, leaving Yin sitting in the mess hall with Wo. As Wo shuffled over to Yin and attempted, and failed, to climb up his legs he let out an exasperated sigh. "Why couldn't I just say I don't want to lose them?!"

"**Wo?"**

Yin looked down to Wo then stood up from his chair. "No point in whining about it, I guess. Shall we go see the rest of the base?"

"**WO!"**

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"I wonder if the Admiral has some kind of plan or something." Tenryuu said as she and Shimakaze sped across the ocean to the small chain of nearby islands.

What do you mean?" Shimakaze asked as she and her three Rensouhou-chan's kept reorganizing where they were in proportion to her.

"It's strange, sending us out on an expedition when we should be hunting for some enemies to level up with. How could we even begin to assist other fleets if we're too weak to help?"

"I'm sure he has a plan, at least I'm hoping. Otherwise that Wo is going to bite us in the ass!"

"You really dislike her. huh, Shimakaze? Why don't you at least try to like her, would it hurt you that badly? Or are you afraid you'll get caught by its cuteness?"

Shimakaze glared at Tenryuu in response and sped ahead as if proving that nothing could catch her. This was going to be a long expedition.

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Yin stood at the edge of the firing range pool with Wo beside him and looked out at it with a smile on his face. "Well Wo, we've now explored the entire base, want to go for a quick swim?"

Wo looked at Yin for a moment before a bright huge smile lit up her face and she jumped into the pool without a second thought, her tentacles allowing her to get up to a significant speed as she began swimming laps around its edge, occasionally diving down to the pool's bottom before coming back up and doing it all again.

Allowing a smile to leave his face, Yin stripped down to his swim trunks (that he was wearing under his uniform) and took a running jump, cannonballing into the pool with a splash. As he surfaced he squirted some water out of his mouth and slicked his now drenched white bangs out of his eyes. "Ah, I love a good swim!"

"**WO!" **Wo exclaimed happily in agreement as she began doing irregular dives down to the pool's bottom, which was a lot deeper than it looked from the edge.

"I wonder how long I can hold my breath compared to Wo?" Yin wondered aloud as he took a deep breath and plunged under the water, keeping his eyes open so he could see were Wo was. Seeing him under the water Wo swam over and stayed near him, looking at him with a look of wonder plastered across her face. Sadly, it took only a minute before Yin was forced to allowing himself to float up to the top of the pool, gasping for air as he surfaced. "Okay, you win, Wo."

Wo popped up to the water's surface as Yin talked, looking at him in confusion. **"Wo?"**

"Don't worry about it, shall we get out now?"

Wo nodded happily as she swam over to the edge and attempted to crawl out, failing even with the help of her headgear's tentacles and falling backwards back into the pool

Smiling, Yin swam over and pulled himself out of the water before pulling Wo out and placing her on the pool's edge. "There you go, now I just need to- what the..?" Yin suddenly exclaimed as he gently grabbed one of Wo's tentacle to find the end of it was a pale red instead of its usual greyed white.

"**Wo?"** Wo exclaimed worryingly as Yin squatted down in front of her.

Yin looked from the tentacle in his hand to the other three to find that they too had pale red ends on them. "What in the world is this?"

Wo looked at Yin as he gazed at the ends of her tentacles and, in a brief moment of spontaneity, decided to leap at and hug Yin. Not expecting Wo to suddenly hug him, Yin's lost his balance and fell backwards toward the pool. As he fell, his left leg ended up stretching out toward he pool, and when it hit the water, did not go through its surface and instead planted itself firmly on its surface. Unfortunately, this did nothing for him as the rest of his body fell sideways, back into the pool with a splash.

Yin pushed himself to the water's surface and coughed up some water as Wo swam over to him. "Not. Ack. Not cool, Wo. If you wanted to keep swimming you should have said something."

"**Wo?"**

"Or did you just want a hug?"

"**WO!"**

"Huh, let's get out for real this time." Yin said as he and Wo once again swam to the pool's edge and climbed out, Yin having to pull Wo out after again watching her insanely cute but sad struggle to climb out. After getting dried off and putting his uniform back on, he and Wo slowly walked toward the base's main building, intent on putting some food In their stomachs. As Yin opened the door to the main building he turned and looked at the pool. "I'm sure I'm just imagining it, but it felt like my foot was on a solid surface when it hit the water. Must be the lack of sleep I didn't get last night."

"**Wo! Wo, Wo, Wo!" **Wo began calling as she gestured toward the mess hall with her arms and her tentacles.

"Right, sorry Wo, you're hungry, huh?"

Wo nodded her head rapidly as a small bit of drool crept from the corner of her mouth.

"Alright, alright. I'll grab you some bauxite to munch on while I make myself some lunch." Yin said as he followed Wo toward the mess hall.

As Yin walked, he looked out a window of the hallway and out toward the ocean, wondering how Shimakaze and Tenryuu were doing out on the expedition, and hoping nothing was going wrong.

**Authors note: and another chapter done! This is going good, and now we'll have the continued expedition of Tenryuu and Shimakaze, and the new addition of a battleship to the fleet, look forward to it!**


	4. The New Girl

Shimakaze sighed as she and Tenryuu looked along the shore of the fifth small island they had found in the chain, still not having found a single tonne of resource. "This is pointless! What the heck could we possibly find on an island chain!"

"Give it a rest; this will take time, Shimakaze!" Tenryuu said as she walked the beach behind Shimakaze, glancing into the small bushes that made up the island's center.

"We haven't found a single thing and there's only one island left!" Shimakaze raged as she pointed to a large island a little farther away.

"Then let's head on over to it. With any luck we'll find the resources we need!" Tenryuu said as the two of them turned and ran off across the water towards the last island. As they neared it, they could tell that, unlike the previous ones, it was more than just a slab of sand, having a towering spire of shrub covered rock jutting out of it's center. The side they approached had no beach so the two of them instead went around its back side, and were shocked as to what was there. Embedded in the thick rock spire and jutting out into the ocean, holes and rust all over it, was the ruined carcass of a World War 2 cruiser.

The cruiser's hull was rotted through at many points, and entire areas of what remained were covered in rust. The top of the cruiser was non-existent except for a few spines, spikes and spires of metal, the rest of its top having been lost when it likely took fire. Like the top of it, both of the guns on its top were merely wreckage, mere shadows of their former selves.

"W-what? " Shimakaze managed to say as the two of them looked in both interest and fear at the fate before them, the fates of their former selves.

Circling the wreckage they looked on in awe, unable to tell what was damage from time, and damage that led to its sinking. All that was visible on its side was worn lettering that Tenryuu could not read, forcing her to make a guess on the ships origin. "It looks like the Nagara class, Abukuma!" Tenryuu said in shock." I thought it was supposed to have sunk near Negros₁!"

"That's in the Philippines, nowhere near us!"

"It's not the first time that given information and the actual information have not matched up." Tenryuu said with a grim look. "Let's take a look."

"Huh! There no way, that's heretical! Would you want someone looking through your previous self's corpse?" Shimakaze demanded loudly as her Rensouhou's circled her with smiles on their faces, unawares of the argument around them.

"No, but something doesn't sit right with me about this. Information can be wrong, but it's rarely this wrong. And the Abukuma was sunk from bombs, but there are holes all over its hull. Even below where the waterline would be. The wreckage of its guns looks wrong as well. They're too small of a calibre."

Shimakaze looked at Tenryuu for a moment before realizing what she had meant. "You think it's a fake?"

"Yeah, and I say we check it out. If it isn't she deserves a proper burial. If it is, well, We should find out!"

"But – where would we go in? We can't climb it. It looks like it'll break in an instant. And what if we encounter the enemy, we're not equipped for full on combat at this time!"

"You have your Rensouhou's and I have my katana, we'll be fine." Tenryuu stated resolutely. "We'll go in the bottom, which should tell us what we want to know right away!"

Knowing she would not convince Tenryuu otherwise Shimakaze followed her toward the wreckage, and through a massive hole in the hull. Inside, they were shocked at what they saw, and what it proved. The inside of the hull was empty apart from massive piles of modern ammunition, fuel and steel, arranged neatly along the side without holes. The ceiling dripped water off of its completely clean and smooth surface. The holes on the hull did not have blade of metal coming out from where the impacts would have been, being instead completely filed down exactly like a fake wound would have been.

"This is, look at all that resource!" Tenryuu exclaimed, ignoring the inner hull completely as she ran over and began grabbing handfuls of resource and piling into the backpack over her shoulder.

Following suit Shimakaze walked over and began doing the same, though far more cautiously. "I don't like this, how did this all get here?"

"I'm not sure, but its free game so we'll grab it and go. This is obviously fake wreckage though. We'll inform the admiral about it when we get back."

"I agree with that, well just-,"

Skeeeeeee.

"Did you hear that?" Shimakaze asked suddenly, dropping the last handful of fuel into her backpack.

"Hear what?" Tenryuu asked as she leaned over the last tiny pile of steel. "Are you sure you're not just hearing things?"

SKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

"You heard it that time right!" demanded Shimakaze as she began looking around frantically.

"Okay, yeah. I heard that, but what was it?" Tenryuu said as she too began looking around a well.

As the two of them looked around the cavernous ruins they spied a pool of deep black water. As they gazed upon the water it began bubbling up and out of it came the shapes of almost a dozen abyssal I-class destroyers. The first to pop up out of the water flew toward Tenryuu who, without a second thought, swung her blade and sliced it cleanly in half.

"Let's get out of here!" Tenryuu screamed as the two of them bolted for the hole in the hull, as even more I-class destroyers popped out of the water in attempt to strike them. Within a minute they had left the fake wreckage and were rushing across the water, but now on the open sea, the I-classes were following them.

"Damn it, they're following us! We have to lose them!" Shimakaze stated as she darted to the side, dodging a shot from an I-class.

"We could try taking them out." Tenryuu replied as she ducked and swerved to make herself a harder target as she looked back. "Though with that many of them and us not having our full gear. . . "

"We can't take that many! They may only be I-class, but there's dozens of them!"

"Weren't you the one wanting to get into a fight for some experience?"

"But that's-.."

"Have your Rensouhou-chan's fire on them to cover me, I'll go in close range and destroy as many as I can. We'll make them so scared they run from us!" Tenryuu ordered with a smirk as she flipped her blade in her hands.

"Are you sure about this?" Shimakaze asked.

"Not at all, but it's all we got! Come and get me you little shits, I'll make you afraid of me yet!" Tenryuu yelled as she rushed toward the enemy, her blade to her side and ready to strike.

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Admiral Yin sat on the edge of the docks with Wo beside him, watching the sun slowly slide toward the horizon.

"I don't like this, Wo," Yin said quietly as he fiddled with the base's tablet on his lap. "Tenryuu and Shimakaze keep getting bits of experience every few moments, and have been for a while now. I'm worried."

"**Wo."**

"I just hope they're okay. An expedition isn't supposed to mean finding enemies but I guess it's always a possibility. As long as-,"

"**W****o, wo, wo,wo!" **Wo began staring as she hopped up and down and pointed out to the horizon.

Squinting to see, Yin could make out two shadows coming toward them, and within the minute was relieved to see Tenryuu and Shimakaze return. As they got to the docks Yin could see the telling signs of battle, severe battle. "What the heck happened?"

Shimakaze and Tenryuu both looked at him nervously as the climbed up onto the dock. "We, uh, hit a small snag when gathering resources." Shimakaze said.

"So you did find resources then?"

"Fufufu, you doubted us? We found the mother lode of resources. And I-class destroyers that had made a fake cruiser wreckage to hide in." Tenryuu stated as she sheathed her sword, finally knowing they were safe.

"That explains the XP increases I was seeing for the two of you. Did you destroy all of the I-class's?"

Tenryuu shook her head. "No, we only destroyed about half a dozen allowing us to escape from pursuit."

"I see. Looks like we'll have to take them out at some point. . . . No matter. You've completed the expedition and gotten yourselves some levels each. Let's put those resources in the storage and make that battleship!" Tenryuu and Shimakaze nodded and followed him back to the factory, Wo following just behind them, riding atop a Rensouhou.

In the factory they quickly went about piling the resources into the rooms, adding up the total amounts and then methodically bringing out the needed resources and stacking it in a neat pile in the center of the room.

"Okay, what next?" Yin asked a nearby maintenance fairy as Wo placed the last tonne of fuel onto the pile.

The fairy looked to Yin and smiled. "Just look to the pile, think of what class of ship your wanting, and clap!"

"I heard it was strangely easy, but were we seriously built that way? " Tenryuu said as she picked up Wo and noticed the red tips to her tentacles. "Did you get into paint?"

"She didn't get into any kind of paint, the tips just kind of became red. I noticed it earlier today and I'm not sure what brought it on." Yin commented as he stepped up to the pile and closed his eyes, thinking on what class he wanted for his fleet, a battleship.

"I see. Well, I'll worry about it later. Let's see our new ally!" Tenryuu called as Yin clapped his hands together hard before the various resources. For a moment nothing happened, then the resources lit up in a blinding light. When the light died down Shimakaze Tenryuu and Yin bore witness to their new ally. Her red skirt and white sarashi highlighted her dark skin and white hair magnificently. Behind her the massive forms of her many guns shone brilliantly in the light as she stepped forward with a smile and greeted them all.

""This Yamato class battleship, Musashi, greets you. It will be a pleasure to work with you all, I'm sure!"


	5. First Sortie

Musashi sat in the hot tub with Tenryuu and Shimakaze as Wo swam happily around in between the three of them in the hot tubs center. Letting out a sigh Musashi looked upwards, the mist of the hot tub making the lights above them seem foggy. "This Musashi is surprised that there are so few of us."

Tenryuu opened her eyes and lifted her head from the edge of the hot tub, looking to Musashi. "This base only became operational a few days ago, it was just me and Shimakaze until now and we literally just had out first expedition today before you had come."

Musashi nodded at Tenryuu's explanation and looked to Wo, who still swam about happily in the hot tub, despite it being bad manners. "What about that little one? It looks like a Wo-class aircraft carrier, only smaller."

Tenryuu nodded. "She is, kind of."

This caught Musashi's attention causing her to glance to Tenryuu with a look of interest.

"She followed the admiral here when he found her on the open sea. She wasn't with anyone and followed him into the base. The fairies even put her in the base system registries, though she's apparently level 0."

"This Musashi did not think such a thing was possible. Why is it not put in a cell or the like?"

"Good question!" Shimakaze nearly yelled as she pulled herself out of the hot tub and threw a towel around herself. "I'm outa here, see you tomorrow."

Musashi and Tenryuu watched Shimakaze leave before the both of them shrugged. "She does not like the little one?" Musashi asked cautiously.

Tenryuu shook her head. "Despite the admirals idea of seeing what happens she keeps adamant that Wo is some kind of assassin, or sneak, or something of the like."

"I see. And what do you think of the little one?"

Tenryuu looked at Musashi for a moment before pushing away from the wall and picking up Wo with both hands, and flinging her into the air, catching her as she fell back down laughing. "She's so cute!"

Musashi nodded. "You do not believe she could be an enemy in disguise? She is an abyssal ship regardless of size after all."

"The admiral has basically said we'll wait to see what happens, and that she has to be watched at all times. Besides, she's too cute to be dangerous!"

"This Musashi understands. Do you watch the little one then?"

"Around the base yeah, I have been. Now that we've been on a successful expedition though, we may finally get some sorties, so Admiral Yin will watch her then." Tenryuu said as she let go of Wo, allowing her to go back to swimming around the hot tub happily.

Musashi nodded and watched as Wo swam around the hot tub, eventually swimming over to her and latching onto her shoulder, awkwardly attempting to climb up her with a smile. "Um, what do I do?" Musashi asked, unsure of how to react to Wo climbing up her shoulder.

Tenryuu chuckled. "Just say hello to her, she probably wants to know if you're friendly or not."

Hearing this Musashi looked to Wo who merely looked back at her with a look of innocence. "Um, this Musashi greets you?"

Wo looked at her for many moments before waving her hands up in the air happily ,using the tentacles on her headgear to keep herself steady on Musashi's shoulder. **"Wo!"**

"Err; the little one is clinging tighter to my shoulder, is this normal?"

Tenryuu nodded with a smile. "Yep, see, she's hugging you, she likes you!"

Musashi looked down at Wo as she began rubbing her cheek against Musashi's shoulders, letting out soft coo's as she did. "This Musashi is not sure how to react to this."

"Then don't." Tenryuu said simply as she waded through the hot tub and over to Musashi. With a simple motion she lifted Wo off of Musashi's shoulder, Wo suddenly confuse about being in the air, and placed her down at the edge of the hot tub before pulling herself out. "It's time we head to sleep Wo." Tenryuu said as she grabbed a long dark blue towel and wrapped it around her body before taking two slam pink towels and wrapping them around Wo's body and head gear, making her look similar to a pink frosted cupcake.

Wo looked at Tenryuu then down at the towel around her waist before throwing her arms up in the air happily. **"Wo"**

Picking up Wo and propping her up on her shoulder, Tenryuu turned to Musashi with a smile. "We'll be heading to bed now. Do you know where your room is, Musashi?"

Musashi nodded." This Musashi knows where it is, it was seen on the way down the halls earlier."

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning then." Tenryuu said as she and Wo left the hot tub leaving Musashi to herself.

Musashi let herself sink deeper into the water and let out a pleasant sigh of relief. "This is nice. I think I'll enjoy being in this fleet."

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Yin stepped out of his bedroom and into his office, sitting down quickly and pulling out the base tablet and giving it the once over. He had been happy that they had gotten such a reliable battleship in Musashi, but now that he was taking a glance at the data he began to realize that there might be a problem. Musashi, while extremely powerful and reliable, had an absolutely massive amount of resource intake of both ammunition and fuel, and if she became badly damaged it would be greatly expensive in steel to repair her. "With the bases current resource holding capacity, hmm, I'll need to have the storage areas enlarged so we can have a larger amount of excess resources. But that means upgrading the base as a whole. Hmmm" Yin wondered aloud to himself. "We have enough resources for a couple of repairs, or one on Musashi, but out resource regeneration is too low at the moment. Looks like we'll need to do an expedition, or sortie to take out that mass of I-class destroyers."

Standing up from his desk and placing the base's tablet in the holder on his belt Yin walked around his desk and out of his office, quickly heading towards the cafeteria where the ship girls were likely having breakfast. At that thought Yin's stomach grumbled loudly, breakfast was something he would happily indulge in, and there was no point in sending the girls out until they were done.

As he opened the door to the cafeteria Yin expected to be greeted with the sight of the girls eating, and instead was greeted with Wo to the face. Pulling Wo off of his face as carefully as he could, and then being greeted by Wo who leapt from his grip and latching onto his shoulder with a hug, he then saw Tenryuu running over.

"Sorry admiral, Wo and the Rensouhou's got a little rough and sent Wo flying toward the door. I guess you timing was perfect, huh?"

"Yeah I guess so." Yin replied with a chuckle as Tenryuu took Wo off of his shoulder as they walked over to the table were Musashi and Shimakaze were happily digging into the food before them. Sitting down Yin could see a plate of food already out for him and happily dug into it. "Mmm. This is pretty good Tenryuu!"

Tenryuu looked away from Yin and put down her chopsticks. "Err, Musashi made breakfast, not me actually."

Yin looked at Tenryuu for a moment before turning his gaze to Musashi with a smile. "Sorry about that, I should've asked first. Musashi, this is really good!"

Musashi nodded as she cleared her throat. "This Musashi thought she would do something to help everyone, it is minor though."

Yin let out a light chuckle as he finished his food and placed down his chopsticks. "Well, it's really good. And there is of course more you can do."

Hearing Yin say this everyone perked up a bit, especially Shimakaze. "Then are we going to-?"

Yin nodded. "Yep. The three of you are to sortie. The objective is to take out that nest of I-class destroyers that Tenryuu and Shimakaze encountered yesterday. Clear them out and bring back anything of worth."

Shimakaze nearly leapt from her seat and ran towards and out the door. "Battle here we come!"

Musashi looked at the door as it slowly swung shut. "Is she normally this way?"

"She's been wanting to sortie since the admiral got here" Tenryuu replied as she stood up from her seat. "Shall we?"

Musashi nodded and followed Tenryuu toward the cafeteria's exit.

"Good luck, and be safe" Yin said under his breath as the two girls left the room following far behind Shimakaze, leaving Wo and Yin alone.


	6. Night-Time Decision

Yin and Wo watched as Shimakaze, Tenryuu, and Musashi disappeared off into the horizon; heading toward their first real sortie. Yin did not expect trouble, after all; despite the numbers they were only going to be fighting I-class destroyers. Letting out a slow sigh, Yin looked down beside him to see Wo standing beside him, still looking out toward the horizon. "They'll be back," Reassured Yin, causing Wo to turn and look up at him; her eyes barely visible beneath her headgear.

"**Wo?"**

"Don't worry, they'll be fine too," Yin added, thinking that Wo was likely worried about them, as he gazed back at the horizon.

"**Wo!"**

Yin turned his gaze back to Wo, wondering what she was crying about, and quickly understood. Wo was still standing where she had been and was still facing him, but all four tentacles on her head gear were pointing straight for the pool/firing range. "You want to go for a swim huh? Well it's not like I have anything important to do. Until we get more ships and begin more sorties my paperwork is practically non-existent. Let's go."

"**Wooo!"** Wo exclaimed happily as she turned around and led the way across the docks, shuffling along with her short little legs.

Yin followed behind her, making sure to slow his speed to not accidentally walk past or kick Wo by accident. Despite Wo's little legs they made it across and away from the dock in good time; getting into the pool/firing range area within ten minutes. As Yu slid off his uniform, he watched as Wo haphazardly leapt headlong into the pool and began swimming around happily; both her limbs and tentacles moving rapidly to speed her along.

Letting out a small snicker, Yin walked over to the pool and dropped himself in; the water feeling cool and pleasant against his skin. Doing a quick stretch, he pressed his legs against the wall of the pool and sprung off of it, speeding across its length as he began to do laps. The others likely wouldn't be back until late in the afternoon; it would be a long day.

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"That is the place where the nest resides then?" Musashi asked as she, Shimakaze and Tenryuu stood atop the water a mere half league from the fake cruiser's wreckage.

Tenryuu nodded as she pulled her katana out of its sheath and readied her gun. "Yeah that's it. It was swarming with I-class's before. We killed about a dozen of them then."

"And now we can finish the job!" Shimakaze said impatiently as the barrels of her Rensouhou's seemed to twitch and shiver with excitement.

"This Musashi understands. How do we want to do this?" Musashi asked politely.

"Let's just rush in and break em! We'll do it so fast they won't see it coming!" Shimakaze stated as the rudders on her heels began twitching like her Rensouhou's.

Tenryuu shook her head. "It was awfully dark in there last time and we don't know how many there are. I say we blast them out with all of our guns and demolish their nest from here. Once it's destroyed we can destroy the ones that come leave without trouble!"

"Musashi agrees. Our cannons will make short work of it, and destroy many of them as well. It will make this much safer. We don't want to need heavy repairs after our first sortie."

Shimakaze opened her mouth to disagree, but quickly realized she was overpowered in votes and firepower; and they did have a point. "Alright, I guess. We can do it that way. It'll be slow though."

"Yeah it will, but let's light it up and make them so afraid they'll run scared!" Tenryuu said as she aimed her gun toward the nest and let of the first shot.

Shimakaze was next, firing shots from her Rensouhou's right toward the nest and Musashi was last to fire her cannons. The rumbling of which caused the water around them to scream from the shockwaves of her fire. The nest took only two shots directly; every shot after blowing through it creating massive blasts of shrapnel and fire. Within a minute the nest was a mere pile of scrap that was quickly being swallowed up by the sea. And then they appeared. In seconds almost two dozen I-class abyssal destroyers came to the surface and bared their teeth to the girls, showing that they would not retreat. All three girls smiled and re-aimed their guns. It was time to earn some experience.

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Wo watched anxiously with the admiral at the dock for the girls to return. From the way that the admiral was eying the bright orange horizon it was easy to tell that he was nervous; not that she could comfort him much - even though she wanted too.

Suddenly the Admiral began waving his arms and a big smile crossed his face. Looking away from the admiral and to the horizon, Wo could see the silhouettes of Shimakaze, Musashi and Tenryuu, and the warmth of happiness filled her. Within seconds of the three of them climbing onto the dock Wo threw herself at Tenryuu's ankle and hugged her happily. Picking her up, Tenryuu and allowed her to cling onto her chest; an act she happily splurged in to show her care.

But later that night as the three girls were in the warm steamy water with Wo, she could make out words they were saying to each other. 'Battle, guns, destroyer, battleship, cruiser, ships, allies' all of these and more Wo was able to make out, though she could not mimic them. It became obvious to her, from the way the three girls spoke, that they had indeed been in danger when they had gone, and that they would be again.

Later that night as Wo lay beside Tenryuu on the futon, she found herself unable to sleep, but also unable to make noise to tell Tenryuu so. Instead, she only felt an emotion she did not understand. Curiosity, love, caring, fun; she understood all of these emotions and splurged in them with Tenryuu, the admiral, Musashi and even with the little gray guys of Shimi's. But these new emotions were different. They were hard and hot, cold and dark, and thick and steely. She didn't understand these new feelings, but she felt the need to.

Sitting up in the futon, Wo looked at Tenryuu as she slept. Tenryuu was nice and loving and cared for her; she didn't want her to become hurt in whatever danger she was in when away from her, that much she knew perfectly.

Crawling out of the cloth covering her, Wo slid away from Tenryuu; making sure not to wake her. Shuffling out of the room on her tiny legs, Wo went down the dark hallways and came to a door; sliding it open and going in. From the floor she could see the dark skin and large motherly chest of Musashi at the edge of the futon before her. Musashi was quiet, but she felt strong and safe to be near; and Wo liked her a lot. She didn't want her to be hurt, or to go away.

Again leaving the room, Wo continued down the hall and went into the next room. In the room were two futons; one where the three fun gray guys slept comfortably and the other were Shimi lay. Shimi was loud and Wo knew she wasn't liked by her, but she didn't hate her for it. Wo knew she wanted to be liked by Shimi, but would somehow have to make it happen herself.

Sliding out of the room once more Wo came to a set of double doors. Pushing one open, she walked through the empty barren room, filled with only a desk, and came to its second door. Sliding it open, she walked over to the futon in its middle. Laying in it with a small content smile on his face was the admiral. The one she first met and first liked; he played with her, and made her feel happy and wanted. He was a good person and she knew from the way that he talked to her, that when the other girls were gone he was nervous; worried about them and the danger they were in.

As Wo left the admiral's room and office, she stood outside of it; the size of the door making her seem even smaller than she was. She recalled some of the words Tenryuu and the others had said as her tentacles lifted up and touched the protrusions coming off the side of her large head. 'Ammo, gun, cannon.' Feeling even stranger now, Wo walked to the end of the hall and pushed open the door.

The midnight air was cool and moist as it blew off the ocean and around the base. Working by memory, Wo slowly made her way to the angled place of water where Admiral kept taking her to swim; and where she had seen Tenryuu and Shimi firing the loud flashes at circles on the other side. Pushing the door ajar and stepping into the angled place. Stepping up to the water's edge, Wo looked at the clear calm water and recalled that Shimi, Musashi and Tenryuu always stood atop it while using the flashies at the circles.

Jumping down at the water Wo went right into it, sinking down to the bottom in an instant. Quickly swimming back up, Wo used her tentacles to pull herself up and out of the pool and faced it again. Again she jumped at the water and again she went to its bottom. But she did not give up. Again and again and again Wo did this, until finally she stepped onto the water and found her feet holding to its top; her body on the water but above it.

Holding herself steady, she looked at the circle's that sat at the end of the pool. She remembered the shape, look, sound and effect of what happened when Tenryuu's flashy thing flashed toward the circle and tried to make it happen, but nothing did.

Wo glanced down at the water below her and could see her reflection clearly. The protrusions on her large head were shaped just like the flashy things of Tenryuu's; could they do what Tenryuu's flashies did? Wo looked to the circles and thought about aiming toward them, and her protrusions did. She thought about making them flash, but nothing happened. However, Wo was determined now. Time after time she tried to make it flash until finally both of her protrusions let out small flashes; accompanied with small bursts of noise. The circle she was aiming at was in pieces and, feeling the desire to do it again, Wo did so until no circle thing stood in one piece at the end of the pool.

Stopping now that all the circles were broken, Wo realized that while the strange feelings inside her where still there, a few had changed. Instead of feeling like she was scared for Tenryuu, Shimi and Musashi, she now felt like helping them and finding a way to do so. Deciding in that instant she would find a way to help them; Wo's mind was completely made up. But the night was long and sleep was finally catching up with her. Letting out a yawn, Wo left the pool and headed back to bed With Tenryuu; not noticing that the red tips of her tentacles had turned to wiggly stripes, and crawled down their entire length.

Beta read by Nanashi Wanderer

**Authors note: And things continue! As a note to a grammar schism that some will likely notice some of the words for wo's thought processes are obviously grammatically wrong, but this is because, as you likely know, her thought processes can be compared to a young child or toddlers. I hope you understand and down attempt to hunt me down, but the words of hers that are obviously wrong was done to make her psyche seem more as it should.**

**Other than that I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and this look at how wo is slowly changing.**


	7. The Not so Little Addition

Admiral Yin smiled as he brought over a large tray of food and placed it on the table before Shimakaze and Musashi, sitting down at the end of the table as he did. Since their first real sortie two days before every mission the ship girls had been on had been a rousing success with minimal to no injuries incurred and decent amounts of resources gained. As Yin took his plate of food off the tray he looked around and could not help but wonder aloud. "Is Tenryuu still asleep?"

Shimakaze merely shrugged as she continued to throw food down her throat at what for anyone else would be an alarming rate as Musashi placed down her chopsticks. "This Musashi believes so."

"I see. She seems to be up about the same time as you Musashi, I wonder what's keeping her."

"Is Wo here?" Tenryuu screamed as she crashed through the double doors of the cafeteria, heavy exaggerated breaths leaving her mouth as she breathe deeply at the room's entrance.

Neither Yin, Musashi, or Shimakaze spoke for a good minute as Tenryuu stood in the doorway panting; only when Yin stood up from his chair did Tenryuu step forward. "What do you mean, Tenryuu?"

Tenryuu shook her head and walked over to the table, leaning against it as she spoke. "Since our first sortie two days ago Wo has been acting odd. And when I woke up this morning she was gone."

"She wasn't in your room?"

"No." Tenryuu admitted as she avoided Yin's gaze. "And her side of the futon was cold."

"I knew she couldn't be trusted!" Shimakaze suddenly yelled out loud as Yin took out his tablet and began swiping on its screen.

"You have looked around your room to be sure?" Musashi asked calmly as she finished her food and placed her dishes back on the tray.

"Yes, I turned my entire room upside down three times over." Tenryuu said worryingly.

"She's still in the base." Yin said as he placed the tablet back in its case on his belt.

"How do you know, Admiral?" Shimakaze asked as her gaze kept darting to the door, evidently eager to hunt for Wo, though for different reasons that Tenryuu.

"The base tablet says so; it tells me when anyone is on or off the base. Shimakaze, you go with Musashi to look around the dock area, me and Tenryuu will go look around the firing range."

Both Musashi and Shimakaze nodded before turning and leaving the room to search. Yin turned back to Tenryuu and smiled, prompting Tenryuu to finally speak up. "We-, we are going to find her right?"

Yin nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

Yin and Tenryuu got into the firing range and began looking. Yin stopped near the far end and waved Tenryuu over. "What is it, Admiral?"

Yin pointed beside him. "None of you have used the firing range in the last few days, right?"

"No, why?"

"Look at the targets, they're all broken."

Tenryuu turned to the targets and looked over their remains, pieces of wood splinters all over the ground under them. "It looks like they were hit by small cannon fire. Like my own or something similar."

"Could Wo have done it?"

"I didn't think the cannons on her headgear worked, but if they do its possible, I guess. But if so, why?"

"That's what we need to find out. Let's check the factory, it's the second biggest building and could be easily hidden in." Yin suggested.

Tenryuu nodded as they left the firing range and went toward the factory. Inside the factory it was as it should be, nothing seemed out of place. As they went into the far back room where Musashi and any more ships would be built, Yin and Tenryuu looked ahead to see Musashi and Shimakaze slowly opening the steel doors to a supply room.

"This is the last place to check!" Shimakaze explained as she noticed Yin and Tenryuu behind them. "We've checked everywhere else in the main building and the dock.

Yin nodded. "Open it up then back away, just in case something strange happens.

"What do you mean Wo wouldn't attack us!" Tenryuu suddenly said.

"I know she wouldn't, but I'm thinking it's possible something else would."

"You mean . . . . . . . "

"Open it up."

Doing as ordered, Musashi and Shimakaze pulled one last time on the door and it slid fully open, showing its deep dark interior.

Yin stepped forward and placed a hand on his sword, just in case he needed to use it, as he spoke. "Wo, if you're in there come out. If someone is in there with Wo, then come out as well. We will not harm you if you do not mean to harm us or Wo.

". . . . . . . . . . . . um . . . . . I'm coming out. . . . . . Please don't be shocked , Admiral. "came a soft and shy female voice from the depths of the dark room.

Yin raised a brow as his grip on his blade tightened slightly, but the tenseness in his arm slackened. "I don't know who you are or how you know who I am, so come out slowly, alright?"

" . . . . Well, um . . . . . . You do know me . . . . But I guess you don't . . . . . . . I'm coming out."

As the unknown girl's voice ended she stepped from the room and into the light of the factory, shocking everyone as she did. She was slightly shorter than Tenryuu with slightly pale skin. Over her legs she wore thigh high white boots that had small rotor'd spikes on the heels like most ship girls would. She wore a deep white leotard over her entire body and wore a red skirt, similar to a Miko's on her waist. On her neck was the horridly obvious black and tooth covered color bone covering collar of an abyssal ship, though the teeth on it were small, rounded and smooth instead of jagged. In the girl's hands she held a long silver staff with a glowing blue ball at the end. And to top it all off on her head of long smooth silver hair she wore the headgear of a Wo-class aircraft carrier; though instead of being viscous and black her head gear was instead dark grey and smooth on all its points and its tentacles had red stripes down their lengths, even its cannons and glowing blue eyes looked soft and less dangerous that a Wo-class normally would. The strange looking Wo class stood before them and then raised her head to them, showing them her beautiful bright blue eyes and a big bright smile as she spoke.

"Wo has, um. . . I mean, I levelled up, Admiral!"


End file.
